The Vampire Diaries season 8, episode 12, explored what happens when you break a deal with the devil.
After the huge events of the last episode, this episode was forced to deal with the consequences. With the reveal of Enzo’s death and Stefan’s humanity, Salvatore and co. had more than enough on their plates. Unfortunately, the devil isn’t one to wait around for a convenient time. In the midst of losing one of their own, and saving another, they were forced to act quickly to find a way to stop Cade. Read our review to see what we thought of the episode.
‘The Vampire Diaries’ 8×12 recap
Just imagine being Damon Salvatore or Caroline Forbes receiving the news that Stefan Salvatore is now human.
Imagine being Damon, who’s spent over 150 years being a brother of varying quality to a 17 year old Stefan, and realizing that’s all about to change, very quickly. You weren’t always close, but you knew that, at the end of the day, your brother would always be there, and you’d eventually find a way to reconcile completely. After all, eternity’s a long time.
Or, imagine being Caroline Forbes. Just trying to stay strong through your fiancé’s literal deal with the devil, which somehow turned even more murderous than expected. Then, all of a sudden, you find out that the fiancé who you’d planned to spend the rest of your immortal life with, is going to start aging, and will eventually die as an old man. And that’s the best case scenario.
Both of these characters have basically had their lives on pause since Stefan went ripper (Damon even longer), but in The Vampire Diaries season 8, episode 12, they were forced to hit the reset button on the lives they knew. How did they react? With fear, sadness, or uncertainty? Nope. They both went into full-on savior mode.
How Cade would react to Stefan’s humanity was a huge question, going into The Vampire Diaries season 8, episode 12. I assumed that Damon would suffer the consequences for Stefan’s absence, but apparently, since one of the two souls promised is now useless, the deal is null and void!(?) Of course, Cade planned to make Stefan pay for his escape, with his life, unless Damon could get him the Maxwell journal.
Keen to save his, now very fragile, brother’s life, Damon headed on over to the secret Maxwell clubhouse Armory. Unfortunately, Alaric is still hella pissed at Damon for putting his children in danger, and wasn’t giving anything up easily. By the way, where were those kids, anyway? Did they seriously hire another nanny after the Seline debacle?
Luckily, earlier in the episode, Matt discovered his new family heirloom gave him a psychic link to his ancestors, which could help them figure out why Cade wanted the journal.
It was great to go back to The Vampire Diaries flashback era, at least once, before the show ended! Also, although we could watch Katherine/Stefan/Damon flashbacks for an entire series, it was cool to see Matt’s family play a role in the story. Especially with regards to how he was connected to the Bennett witches, and the sirens
However, there were a few things that I didn’t like about this part of the episode. Exhibit A, the blood drinking. Yes, Matt was in a “hypnotic state,” but he seemed pretty conscious when he was telling the story, and he’s been extremely adamant about not ingesting vampire blood to heal himself! Is it basically guaranteed that Matt will become a vampire in the next episode, now? That tragedy would be the only way to make the whole thing make sense.
Exhibit B, Matt got this super cool storyline that tied him into the history of Mystic Falls, gave extreme relevance to his family heirlooms, and could’ve set up a way for Matt Donovan, of all people, to be the one to bring down the devil. Then, Damon took the journal, rendering everything that had just happened useless, and revealed that he knew a completely alternative way of killing Cade. But, whatever. At least Zach Roerig got to wear a cool costume.
While Damon was rushing around trying to save Stefan from Cade’s wrath, Caroline was trying to save him in a completely different way. I loved that, even at the height of his self loathing, Stefan still answered Caroline’s call. While we’re on the subject of phone calls, I also loved that Damon was the one to call Caroline, to tell her. Just one, big, not-actually-very-happy-but-they’re-getting-there-maybe family.
As literally anyone who’s seen even 10 minutes of The Vampire Diaries could’ve predicted, Stefan was drowning in guilt from the crimes he’d committed for Cade. Yes, the storyline has been repeated, but I actually really liked how they handled it in The Vampire Diaries season 8, episode 12.
To see Stefan sitting in an interrogation room with the pictures of his actual victims staring back at him gave a new kind of weight to the things these vampires do. If Caroline hadn’t shown up, Stefan could’ve gone to jail for those crimes. Crimes that he really committed. Something about taking the supernatural lens off of things and bringing them into a real life setting, like the police station, made it all hit home in a different way.
If things were starting to hit home for Caroline, as well, she barely let on. As she said, he did those things for Cade, and her mission was to get Stefan to safety and help in whatever way she could. Typical Caroline Forbes. I mean that in the best way possible.
Luckily, on their way out of the police station, they found a small opportunity for redemption. They succeeded in saving the realtor, but Stefan almost died, in the process, proving just how vulnerable he is. Let’s just take a minute to appreciate that Matt Donovan has stayed alive for 8 seasons (albeit with the help of the Gilbert ring) and Stefan barely lasted a few hours, as a human. Maybe Matt’s stronger than we give him credit for!
Steroline began to have the very important, “what the hell do we do now that I’m human” convo, but it didn’t really conclude in any satisfactory way. As far as we know, Steroline’s still on, though!
The reason their conversation was cut short was because Stefan had to rush home to apologize to Bonnie! Yes, Stefan we know you feel guilty, but can you give the girl a damn minute?! She just felt literal hell-opening amounts of despair, and you’re gonna come at her the next day? She knows you’re sorry. She doesn’t care right now. Take a seat, please.
Related: The Vampire Diaries: What does Stefan’s humanity mean for the series?
It’s still hard to believe that Enzo is really gone when his voice is somehow still calling out to Bonnie. Abby didn’t win any favor with The Vampire Diaries fans by burning that body, but has she even seen this show? People come back from the dead all the time, and they sure as hell don’t always need a preserved body to do it. My bet is that Bonnie will keep hearing those voices. Especially since…
Kai is back!!! What a treat to see that beautiful, villainous face at the end of The Vampire Diaries season 8, episode 12. The wait until the next episode will be even more torturous, knowing that he’s in it, but we have to savor these last few hours with our vampires, so no complaints here!
Extra stuff from ‘The Vampire Diaries’ 8×12
- Bamon was cute, as per usual. It was great how they were able to separate their differing opinions of Stefan when they spoke to each other. So much love there
- If there’s one good thing about Matt’s aversion to vampires (although vampirism is totally coming for him) it’s that Bonnie has an unrelated third party to turn to. I adored the scene on Bonnie’s doorstep… until I got some Matt/Bonnie romantic vibes. Was I the only one? It’s way too soon and Enzo is coming back, okay?!
- What does Dorian know that we don’t? Did he already decipher the journal? My guess is that he was the one to capture Stefan, and that he’ll try his own method of killing Cade
- So if Kai’s back, that means a lot of other characters are coming back too, right? Right?!
- Only four episodes left and I couldn’t be less ready. Kindly cry with me in the comments